Amongst my inventory of Walthers passenger cars (kits and second-hand stock ranging from nice quality builds to “skunky” junkers,) I had five 2nd-hand examples of their #4853 coach which, to the best of my knowledge, has no prototype beyond “approximating” Osgood Bradley MU’s for the NYC, NH and LI. I decided to re-build a pair of them as Long Island “exurban” coaches in the “World’s Fair” scheme employed in the 1960’s. Not perfect matches either. Since LI’s P72 was the unpowered version of their MP72 MU, it should have the same angled car ends which these obviously don’t have and of course that split between roof and end casting...yuck. Had to make separate end doors too to get the port-hole shaped windows, a legacy of former PRR ownership found on a lot of the Long Island’s coach stock. Likewise, some of the windows needed plating over to more approximate the look of the prototype. "The compromises we make......"
The two candidates for rebuilding came from a large collection from Montana of which almost all the equipment was assembled and finished in Great Northern, brush painted in that Dark Green and Orange Empire Builder scheme and the sides and ends required a lengthy tank dip in Pine Sol and then a coat of Aircraft Remover and brush elbow equity to get to the state above. Both cars were poorly fit as well with one having too many creases in the metal sides to salvage, requiring some shopping on Ebay to score an unbuilt kit, the remainder which I’ll later employ using some of the other #48xx series sides in my TBD pile.
Since I was building a pair I was able to save set-up time by doing the large step components for both cars at the same time as in roofs, then fabricating doors, interior liners, floors, underbody parts and furniture, soldered sides and the accompanying painting and decaling etc. Past the above point they’re basically completed one at a time. Note I used basswood blocks in place of the heavy white metal interior bulkheads, not very scale but the larger contact area makes for a larger bonding surface for the sides and doors. I’m most concerned that the interior looks correct through the windows and that you can handle the cars without crushing the sides.
Island Model Works listed nice 1:48th P72 and MP72 car bodies in cast resin sometime ago and I regret not springing for a pair when they were available, though I did use their decals for the letterboards and fictitious road numbers. The Dashing Dans are from K4 Supply’s immaculate LI set.
I did mod all the cast ends for marker lamp fixtures, though only wired up the tail end car for them. Note the LI did not employ diaphragms on these cars or on any other suburban car classes until the advent of the bi-level C3’s. Paint is by Tru-Color, aluminum window sash created with decal stripes, trucks by Lobaugh, roof parts are BCM, underbody parts by Scale City Design who thankfully offered the correct A/C hardware, battery boxes etc. Interior furniture by Precision via Maroon.
Light strips by MTH care of Maroon as well, track power supply for the markers by Circuitron.
If I had to draw a single conclusion from this project it's that next time, given how rough these finished cars turned out, I'll try and be more careful about selecting candidates for rebuilding, likewise spending more time on sanding and resealing the wood roofs.
The impetus for this train is an Oriental C420 I recently received from Joe Grillo, nicely painted by the importer in the Long Island orange and grey, I will post shots of the rest of the cars and the locomotive as I complete them.
I agree with Maroon. 
, I only did one vertical in the center of each window only. One's eye “assumes” the window’s two edges have it, in part because depending on the angle the liner edge is visible through the window or the glaze is slightly recessed behind the window/car side and the window's edge is not visible due to the angle.
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